F. Korbel & Bros. history

By 1894, the Korbel brothers began to sell their champagne, and the people who doubted that California could produce excellent champagne were silenced.

As success was rising, a powerful earthquake hit Santa Rosa in 1906 leveling buildings there and reaching all the way up to the Russian River Valley.

None of them would be alive to see the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 and the resumption of champagne making at the family estate.

The younger Heck returned to Germany to study at the highly regarded Gelsenheim Institute, receiving a degree in Enology in 1938.

He also made innovations on the production end, inventing and patenting the industry's first automatic riddling machine in 1966.

1984: Adolph Heck dies and is succeeded by Gary Heck.

In 1986, Korbel was shipping one million cases of champagne, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year.

In 1990, champagne sales in the United States declined by 7 percent.

Korbel sponsored a boat in the America's Cup yacht race and in 1996 became an official licensed product of the Atlanta Olympic games.

In fact, Korbel shipped out the last of 1.6 million cases of champagne in mid-November 1999.

By the end of 2001, Korbel was back on track with an inventory of 30 to 40 days.